European Art

From Renaissance and Baroque artists like Bellini and Tiepolo to 19th century French impressionism including Monet and Pissarro, the High's European collection reflects important paintings and sculptures from that continent. The core of the collection was donated in 1958 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and includes Giovanni Bellini's Madonna and Child, Tommaso del Mazza's Madonna and Child with Six Saints and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's Roman Matron's Making Offerings to Juno. In the decades that followed, the museum acquired important French paintings by such masters as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. Recent acquisitions of works range from Albrecht Dürer to Antoine-Louis Barye and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

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Portrait of Nency Destouches

Auguste-Jean-Baptiste Vinchon’s Portrait of Nency Destouches (1829) was acquired in January 2011 during the High's annual Collectors' Evening event for the Museum’s European art collection. A mentee of Jacques-Louis David, Vinchon (1789–1855) maintained a level of success during his lifetime that rivaled his contemporaries Eugène Delacroix and Théodore Géricault. Landscape paintings dominate his early career, and in 1819 he expanded his subject matter to include portraiture and historical scenes.

Portrait of Nency Destouches most likely depicts the daughter of architect Louis Nicholas-Marie Destouches. Vinchon’s skill is evident in the way he uses light to illuminate Nency’s angelic cheeks, rosy lips and glowing skin. This portrait is the first work by Vinchon to be acquired by the High and expands the Museum’s collection to fuller illuminate the era of French Romanticism. Other examples of Vinchon’s works are in the collections of the Musée du Louvre and the Château de Versailles.